There was a labor strike at the airport today. It brought back memories of our experience in Barcelona about four years ago. The general strike in Barcelona caused us to have one extra day of vacation. Today's strike only caused complication, confusion and delay, but all worked out ok in the end. Our guide, Alex, met us at the Iguazu Airport on arrival and drove us directly to the falls. Even though I was in a bit of a haze when we landed - Stan and both are...

Stan and I do not usually sign up for sideline excursions when we travel. However, this one sounded like it might offer a different perspective on the area. We've seen Rio from ground level and from mountains like Corcovado and Sugarloaf. This trip gave us a chance to see the area from the bay. Plus it was said to occupy only about four hours of our day—we definitely do not sign-up for all-day trips!. We are glad we went. We met interesting people from Au...

We slept late for the first time since we left home. No driver to meet, no plane to catch. What a pure pleasure to sleep until 7:30 am. Now this is vacation! The downside of this luxury was that our hour-long walk on the beach was much hotter than it was when we were doing the walks at sunrise. I wish I could can-up some of this heat and send it back home so you all could feel real Rio heat. Before I get into today, I need to talk about last night. Afer o...

As I thought we might, we learned! While there are a handful of small islands in the bay, most of the peaks we saw from Corcovado are islands not at all. They are in fact individual peaks that sit on peninsulas that line the crescent-shaped, almost circular Guanabara Bay (name source: woman's breast or a term meaning embracing the sea). Rio itself is nestled in valleys and in the space between mountains and the bay. Peaks are seen in any direction. Sugarloa...

We walked the beach at sunrise. We were there before 6 am. Many, many people were on the beach already to not only to witness the sunrise but probably more importantly to stake out a spot on the beach for the all-day Sunday family picnic. We were amazed to see so many people on the beach so early in the morning - at first we thought perhaps they spent the night; after all, the beaches are lighted at night. Whole families including babies and grandma and grandp...